For me qsos are pretty boring esp JT65A. I can't work more than 5 stations at a time without going into a coma. Lately I've been building cheap antennas with pvc, tape, wire and glue. The process itself is the reward. Once it is built I see if it works. If not I try to improve it. If it does I think up a new project. Working qsos? Yawn.

I've always thought the major macro 'villains' are the software suites with HRD heading the list. Its preproduced macros are usually fiilled with unneeded, and sometimes silly wording. Since it's possible to be "created" in one year and born in another, I find that particular one a laughable classic.I'm not against all use of macros, but maybe each op should 'create' his/her own brief set.

1. If you don't tend to conduct your QSO's as I see fit, then you are crap

2. Your operating is crap if you don't do it the way I think is good

3. In the absence of actual regulations, I am the ultimate authority of how you conduct your QSO's. Failure to comply makes you crap.

4. Finally, if you don't log your QSO's the way I like you to, then you are crap.

Good deal. Glad we got that cleared up and well defined.

Other than what you just posted as being crap ..... opinions, which are what is being posted here as far as I can tell, are like crap. Everyone has it in them.

However, if stating that I find some schmuck's life story coming back at me for several minutes in a long continous string after I respond to his CQ is crap, then pass me a roll of paper there, Jack.

I like to ragchew as much as anybody but I like to be able to get a word in edgewise before I go into a coma waiting for the other guy to get done with his 14 chapters of how old he is, how many times he's been to the docs that week, what meds he takes, what he's retired from or works at, ad naseum, ad nasuem, ad naseum.......

Nothing wrong with a macro saying hello, your name, where you live and then either a sig report or a turn over back to the other guy. What most are saying here is break your life story up into manageable sizes. I doubt I have a macro on any digital mode that is more than 8 to 10 words long. Easy to string them together as needed just don't over do it!

Not only brief but it invites are response before the other op looses interest. Like "how well does your low wire do on EU Dx?"

If you are going to send a macro, at least make it look like you are typing. Usually what I do, or did as I don't do PSK31 anymore, was to taylor my macros so that it could start a conversation and as it was being transmitted, I could type a follow up sentence or question before it was done. The time while the macro was transmitting gave me a chance to think of what to say, then type and correct my typing mistakes before my transmission ended. This helped eliminate some of the dead air of trying to think of something to say. Also, if I was really quick, I'd pop up the other ops qrz page and see if they had anything in their bio that might be interesting to talk about.

The reason why some PSK users send all the time, date stuff and how many clubs they belong to is they don't have much to say. There is nothing wrong in using macro's if the stuff on them is how you would speak to someone if you were using a microphone. I've been operating for years, I keep seeing the same calls each time I operate and seeing the same "All is OK my friend QSL card 100% etc" but almost all my contacts, because of the poor conditions, are in western Europe and many cannot use a keyboard. Even the users in the states are the same ones, when they are able to contact Europe. It would be nice to have contacts with people who are new !

My solution seems simple---if I only want the basic contact I press my 73 macro button after the first response that has the basic info of name, signal report, and location. They always respond with their 73 macro at that point. As an aside, I have found that psk operators are more polite and considerate than ssb. Never ran into a rude psk operator but on ssb it is easy to find a wide range of psychopathology and a wide spectrum of personality disorders.

My solution seems simple---if I only want the basic contact I press my 73 macro button after the first response that has the basic info of name, signal report, and location. They always respond with their 73 macro at that point. As an aside, I have found that psk operators are more polite and considerate than ssb. Never ran into a rude psk operator but on ssb it is easy to find a wide range of psychopathology and a wide spectrum of personality disorders.

That's because PSK ops tend not to usually talk about anything specific but rather send macro after macro after macro of canned text about when they were 'created', how many screws there PC case has in it, results of last month's medical checkup and an assorted list of complaint about the government. It's hard to create macros that contain appropriate rude behavior for every given situation

WOW, I see what you guys mean! I am not on yet, as I have not put up my antenna(s) from our move to Oregon. BUT, I d/l Digipan and tried the k7age sample! I see some equipment brag files showing their computers memory! GEEZE!

One thing I did not expect was the RTTY type typos. Is this noise or just guys who do not type well. I don't care I just thought for some reason that the "print" would be clean.

One thing I may try is to bring my TS940 up to this computer (that I built myself with 1 GB of memor...OH, never mind :-)) and attach a hunk of wire for an antenna to see what I can copy live on 20M.

WOW, I see what you guys mean! I am not on yet, as I have not put up my antenna(s) from our move to Oregon. BUT, I d/l Digipan and tried the k7age sample! I see some equipment brag files showing their computers memory! GEEZE!

One thing I did not expect was the RTTY type typos. Is this noise or just guys who do not type well. I don't care I just thought for some reason that the "print" would be clean.

One thing I may try is to bring my TS940 up to this computer (that I built myself with 1 GB of memor...OH, never mind :-)) and attach a hunk of wire for an antenna to see what I can copy live on 20M.

If your just going to listen for now, be sure and put the Ts940 in FSK mode (bottom of stack of mode buttons). This way you will be able to use the narrow filtering afforded by the 940s receiver. I use a TS940S on RTTY in FSK mode and it works great for that.

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